Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure to attend Robert Clinch’s exhibition opening at the Manningham Gallery in Doncaster. He is a contemporary realist painter of exceptional quality. His works command respect.

I thought he strikes a perfect balance between craftsmanship and his artistic voice. The details he affords in the works are extraordinary. There is no way these images can be truly appreciated from the brochures. One has to see them in the flesh.

Apart from the extraordinary details in the works, some of them also stand out with the unique colors of egg tempera medium. Egg tempera is a traditional technique dating pre-Renaissance and used extensively during the Renaissance and later in Orthodox iconography. It involves quite a bit of technical knowledge surrounding the medium to make it work. It is not readily available and the artist would have to make it. We learn from an interview with Megan McEvoy that he uses it, not only because it does not fade even over centuries but also provides a rich color not available in other mediums. “It has a glow,” he says.

Another aspect of his work is that they are derived from on-site drawings. The images are therefore completely hand-made and are not traced from photographs. This seems to give him the power of re-constructing entire images from scratch and arrange them in ways which would not otherwise be possible.

His works are quite unique. In the same interview he says “I left school at eighteen, and went straight into workforce…My experiences in the workforce were probably a greater influence on my subject matter and my way of seeing, than any artist that I have seen.”

He is delivering a free Artists Floortalk this Saturday (24th of July) at 2pm. The details are:

Manningham Gallery

699 Doncaster Road, Doncaster, Vic

Gallery Hours:  14-31 July 2010,

Tuesday to Friday, 11.00am to 5.00pm

Saturday, 2.00pm to 5.00pm